Spring Package

The Commission presented the annual European Semester Spring Package on 24 May 2023. The Package includes a Communication, country reports and country-specific recommendations for all 27 Member States, in-depth reviews for 17 Member States, a Commission proposal on guidelines for Member States' employment policies in 2023, a report under Article 126(3) of the Treaty, and post-programme surveillance reports for Ireland, Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, and Greece.

The 2023 country reports take stock of implementation of the recovery and resilience plans, analyse the economic and social developments and challenges facing Member States and provide a forward-looking analysis of their resilience. The Commission also proposes country-specific recommendations to provide guidance to Member States on how to tackle key economic and social challenges that are only partially or not addressed at all in their recovery and resilience plans. This includes tailored advice to individual Member States on how to boost jobs, growth and investment, while maintaining sound public finances. The recommendations adopt priorities identified in the autumn in the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (EU level) and in the recommendation for the economic policy of the euro area (euro area level). The main messages and conclusions of the Spring package are summarised in a Communication.

The in-depth reviews (IDRs) identify and assess the severity of macroeconomic imbalances for those Member States identified as being at risk by the annual Alert Mechanism Report. The Article 126(3) report assesses Member States’ compliance with the deficit and/or debt criteria set out in the Treaty. The fiscal statistical tables provide background data relevant for the assessment of the 2023 stability and convergence programmes. The post-programme surveillance reports assess the economic, fiscal and financial situation of Member States that have benefited from financial assistance programmes, with a view to their repayment capacity.

The Commission also proposes guidelines for the employment policies of Member States in 2023 which set common priorities for national employment and social policies to make them fairer and more inclusive.

The 2023 cycle takes into account the ongoing discussions on a revised economic governance framework, based on the legislative proposals presented by the Commission on 26 April 2023. Given that a new legal framework, based on the outcome of the ongoing economic governance review, is not yet in place, the current legal framework continues to apply. At the same time, in order to allow for an effective bridge to the future fiscal rules in the context of the Economic Governance Framework, and to take into account current challenges, some elements of the Commission's reform proposal that are consistent with the current legislation are already incorporated into this year’s cycle.

The Eurogroup and the Council will now discuss the package. The Commission will engage in a constructive dialogue with the European Parliament on the contents of this package and each subsequent step in the European Semester cycle.